Robbie Slater says Tottenham have made a mistake sacking Ange Postecoglou

First trophy in 17 years. A united squad. Champions League spot secured. None of that was enough to save Ange Postecoglou’s job at Tottenham. Robbie Slater writes, good luck without him, Spurs.

Tottenham has made a big mistake sacking Ange Postecoglou.

First trophy in 17 years. First European trophy in 41 years. The joyous scenes we saw in Bilbao, the party at the street parade and the celebrations at their final home game showed exactly what this win meant for Spurs fans.

Is it fair to sack Ange after all that?

If Ange told Daniel Levy at the start of the season: you won’t be relegated but I will win the Europa League trophy and qualify the team for Champions League he would’ve jumped at that opportunity straight away.

There will be no season three for Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham. Picture: Getty Images

The problem is, it came with the worst performance in club history in the Premier League with 22 defeats.

If the bottom three Ipswich, Southampton and Leicester City were not as bad as they were, Spurs and Manchester United would’ve been in a relegation battle.

On that alone you could argue his sacking is fair.

For big clubs like Tottenham the League is the most important competition. It’s all about finishing in the top five and qualifying for Champions League football.

Ange still qualified for the Champions League, just not how it’s usually done and the painful road of 17th in the League has cost him his job.

This doesn’t relieve him of all the blame for the Premier League campaign, but there is no doubt that with the bottom three already decided many many weeks before the end of the season Ange rested and prioritised European success ahead of the Premier League.

Postecoglou has a united playing group. Picture: Getty Images

Manchester United didn’t do that. They played full strength teams right up until the week of the European final whereas Ange didn’t and won the trophy. His players believed in what they were aiming to achieve and you could see how much the dressing room was behind him - even in the days before he was sacked.

I think most people, including the fans who wanted him sacked mid-season, realise now how important it was for the club to break their trophy drought. And Ange was right to focus purely on the Europa trophy pursuit.

Winning that trophy has changed history for Tottenham, so you would think Ange at least deserved to start off the next campaign and be given 10 to 15 games to see where he could take this team now they’d had a breakthrough.

Levy with Postecoglou after the Europa League Final. Picture: Getty Images

Levy has left himself in a really, really difficult position now. He’s already not liked by the Spurs fans and now he’s taking a massive gamble here.

The new manager that comes in - whoever that may be - certainly needs to add depth to the squad. Tottenham has already wasted significant time deciding Ange’s future during this transfer window when they could’ve been bolstering this squad for next season.

They’re going into the Champions League where they’re gonna play, let’s face it, a lot better opposition than what they faced in the Europa league.

Ange had promised “season three is always better than season two.” Good luck with that Spurs.

Originally published as Robbie Slater says Tottenham have made a mistake sacking Ange Postecoglou